Published on the 18/06/2013 | Written by Newsdesk

In November 2012 IDC New Zealand partnered with the Getting I.T. Right Initiative, to retest the theory that there was a misalignment of IT to business strategy within New Zealand organisations. The results showed that whilst there were some areas of improvement in 2012, in many instances the misalignment gap has increased between IT management and non-IT management. Key factors identified by IDC as contributing to this persistent gap and project failures included:

• Inadequate project prioritisation and selection processes. To get the budget approval for a project, IT managers often need to commit to a concrete deadline. This inflexibility increases the likelihood of the implementation not meeting the requirement for project timeliness.
• Changing scope during the project. Changes to the original project brief, however minor, generally have a compounding effect on deadlines as the consequences ripple through the entire project timeline and resource availability. The bigger the project, the bigger the ripple.
• A lack of transparency beyond the IT management level. A lack of visibility into IT projects can obscure progress on success factors at the non-IT management level. Project managers often underestimate the importance of defining and clearly communicating risk factors, particularly in large critical projects.
• Insufficient executive involvement in IT project governance. Successful projects require strong executive involvement and sponsorship. If executives believe that they are being excluded from the projects that directly affect their business it will be difficult for these stakeholders to objectively evaluate the success of projects.
• Vagueness of the businesses’ expected needs or project outcomes. In the survey 60% of line of business managers stated that they were only sometimes or never consulted for IT projects affecting their department. This can lead to a lack of clearly defined and mutually agreed success factors, particularly in complex projects.
• No formalised mechanism for capturing and analysing end-user satisfaction with IT service delivery. End-user satisfaction is the bottom line success factor in IT projects. Without a formalised mechanism or process for capturing and analysing end-user satisfaction attitudes there is a danger of IT repeating the mistakes of the past and leading to a dangerous situation where “shadow” IT becomes irretrievably entrenched within the organisation.

These results suggest that managers of all types need to better understand the business process for both IT and non-IT projects in order to achieve better project results.

SAP New Zealand managing director Graeme Riley said, “Increased project complexity in recent years has meant that the IT department has increasingly become separated from how the rest of the business runs.”

The new SAP Process Integration course aims to address this, giving IT managers an in-depth understanding of business processes that goes beyond just the IT department. The course is a combination of instructor-led and supported online learning, and the programme leads to the sought-after SAP certification.

Riley said the course will “empower” IT managers with the knowledge to make business-critical decisions in all functions of an organisation.

Auldhouse General Manager Melanie Hobcraft said “We are thrilled to add this SAP offering to our curriculum stack. This blended-solution workshop will have wide appeal to those interested in business process, which is critical in today’s market.”